2007 Printable Manual - Texas State Library and Archives ...

Sail Away With Books!
• Libraries continue to play a major role in fostering literacy, especially among those most
needing assistance in developing literacy skills, e.g., preschool and elementary school
children. (Celano, Donna and Susan B. Neuman. The Role of Public Libraries in
Children's Literacy Development: An Evaluation Report. Pennsylvania Library
Association, 2001.) Available online at
www.statelibrary.state.pa.us/libraries/lib/libraries/Role%20of%20Libraries.pdf.
• Reading as a leisure activity is the best predictor of comprehension, vocabulary, and
reading speed. (Krashen, Stephen. The Power of Reading. Libraries Unlimited, 1993.)
• Having elementary school pupils read four or five books during the summer can prevent
the reading-achievement losses that normally occur over those months. (Kim, Jimmy S.
“Summer Reading and the Ethnic Achievement Gap.” Journal of Education for Students
Placed at Risk, Vol. 9, No. 2, Pages 169-188).
In a study funded by the Los Angeles County Public Library Foundation, researchers found that
before the summer, 77% of parents reported their child read 9 hours or less per week. During the
summer, parents reported a 9% increase in the number of children reading 10-14 hours per week,
and the number of children reading 15 or more books per week rose 11%. (Evaluation and
Training Institute for the Los Angeles County Public Library Foundation. Evaluation of the
Public Library Summer Reading Program: Books and Beyond…Take Me to Your Reader! Final
Report, December 2001. Available online at www.colapublib.org/about/Readingby.pdf.)
From an economic perspective, Steve Brown, director of North Richland Hills (TX) Public
Library, looked at the dollar value of summer reading. In his article, “What Is a Summer
Worth?” (Texas Library Journal, Summer 2005), Brown calculated the cost for teachers to
review basic reading skills. Based on his figures and hypothetical situation, public library
summer reading programs save schools $873 per reader. Calculate this value times the number of
children who participate in your program and you have quite a return on a small investment.
While we want the children to have fun, use the library, enjoy reading, and check out library
materials, these studies show that public library summer reading programs also play an important
role in the education of our children.
Every Child Ready to Read @ your library
Every Child Ready to Read @ your library is a joint project of the Public Library Association
and the Association for Library Service to Children, both divisions of the American Library
Association. Current research on early literacy and brain development indicates that it is never
too early to prepare children for success as readers and learners. Every Child Ready to Read @
your library incorporates the latest research into a series of parent and caregiver workshops.
Training kits for workshops, videos, posters, brochures in Spanish and English, information
about research, and more are available from the American Library Association at
www.ala.org/ala/pla/plaissues/earlylit/earlyliteracy.htm. These resources provide public
librarians with vital tools to help inform parents of newborns, toddlers and preschoolers of their
critical role as their children's first teacher. They also enable librarians to offer early literacy
workshops for parents in their community.
Researchers have found that there is almost a 90% probability that a child will remain a poor
reader at the end of the fourth grade if the child is a poor reader at the end of the first grade.
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